CRESTVIEW HILLS, Ky. – Senior Jared Baird tossed his team-leading sixth, and fourth-straight, complete game to propel W&J to a 5-1 win over Waynesburg and earn a spot in the 2015 Presidents' Athletic Conference Baseball Tournament Championship round.
 
Washington & Jefferson advances to the PAC title round for the fourth-consecutive season and is one victory away from its 10th league crown. The Presidents will open championship round action at 10 a.m. on Saturday, May 9, against the winner of Friday's 4 p.m. match-up between Waynesburg and the winner of Thiel/Thomas More (Friday's 1 p.m. game).
 
Baird was magnificent on the day, surrendering just one run on a solo homer in the top of the fifth inning. The southpaw scattered six hits in 9.0 innings and struck out four with one walk in improving to 5-3 on the season and earn his third-straight complete-game victory.
 
The one-out solo homer by the Yellow Jackets' Eric Crum in the fifth inning broke a scoreless tie. Waynesburg would load the bases with two outs, but Baird was able to force the clean-up hitter to bounce to short, allowing W&J to force the runner heading to second out.
 
W&J did not need long to respond, answering back with two runs in the bottom of the frame to take a 2-1 lead. Justin Zak and Nick Morton led off with base knocks through the left side and Gannon Rooney laid down a sacrifice bunt to put runners on second and third. Anthony Paladino drove in the first run of the inning with a sacrifice fly to center field and Nick Vento followed it up with an RBI single on a fly ball to left field that landed just inside of the line, 2-1.
 
After Baird retired the Jackets 1-2-3 in the top of the sixth, Derek Helbing opened the bottom of the inning with a walk and went to second on a sac bunt by Ryan Sciullo. With two outs, Zak laced a double to left center, 3-1, and later came in to score on a single up the middle by Morton, 4-1, which chased Waynesburg starter Luke Carter.
 
With one out in the eighth, Cory Bauer stroked a double to right center before moving to third on a ground out by Michael Ruffing and later coming in to cap the scoring when Zak reached on an error, 5-1.
 
Baird set down the Jackets in order in the ninth to complete the game and send W&J back to the championship round.
 
Morton led all players with three hits on the day, adding an RBI and run. Zak and Vento each collected a pair of hits and an RBI, while Zak scored twice. Helbing walked twice on the day.